How The Packers Can Attack Seattle's Secondary

This comment doesn't take away from Seattle's great defense, but I was surprised at how few great quarterbacks they've faced in recent weeks. To start the season, they won against Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning but lost to Phillip Rivers and Tony Romo. Over their past eight games, they've faced Cam Newton, Shaun Hill, Ryan Lindsey, Colin Kaepernick (twice), Mark Sanchez, Drew Stanton, and Alex Smith. Their defense has been fantastic over those last eight games, but that's not the greatest quarterback challenge either. Aaron Rodgers, even with a bad calf, is better than those last seven quarterbacks.

How can Rodgers, #Packers target #Seahawks secondary? All-22 look at 3 route combinations: http://t.co/lB3VUS7weo pic.twitter.com/SkEiEgtOcz
— Matt Bowen (@MattBowen41) January 14, 2015

His article is written like something that a former NFL safety would love, and it's a bit heavy on concepts and formations, but he found three examples of big plays against the Seahawks's defense (which he admitted were hard to find). Two of them were passes to tight ends, and twice it showed how to exploit a linebacker in coverage. Just as TE Andrew Quarless and Richard Rodgers were surprise helpers in their win over the Cowboys, the Packers are going to have to use them again to exploit Seattle's linebackers in coverage.

The last time a quarterback had a good game against Seattle's defense was arguable on November 9th, when Eli Manning wasn't too bad in a 38-17 loss. Unsurprisingly he got a big game from WR Odell Beckham Jr. but he also got a career game out of third string WR Preston Parker. So another big game out of WR Davante Adams is important. In the season's opener, no Packer wide receiver other than Nelson and Cobb caught a single pass and that can't happen again.

For something completely different, the last team when the Chiefs beat the Seahawks, they did it in large part by calling more running plays for Jamaal Charles than pass attempts for Alex Smith. Maybe that was just what the Chiefs had to do because of their quarterback and lack of decent wide receivers, but it's something to consider when the Packers have Eddie Lacy available.

In the end, no pass heavy or run heavy attack is the answer. The Packers will need a combination of both, and every receiver on the team is going to have to deliver.